Still no flash in a flash as chip supplies remain fried

Five months after the Reg first reported that HPE, Cisco – and even Dell EMC – were being punched hard in the supply chain by worldwide flash chip shortages, it's still a problem for at least one vendor.

A Reg reader forwarded this alert message from an HPE system configurator:

ALERT!

Due to an industry-wide shortage, all non-recommended SSDs are expected to be out of stock, as well as some recommended SSDs. Please consult your HPE representative for availability.

Smartphones and digital cameras/camcorders are using more flash and the foundry operators – Samsung, Toshiba/WD, Intel/Micron and SK Hynix – can't produce enough flash chips to meet that demand as well as the need for SSD flash. It has been suggested that supply might get less constrained around the mid-year point.

An HPE spokesperson said: “As we said on our first quarter earnings call, industry-wide demand for NAND storage is constrained due to rapid growth from not only commercial IT products, but also consumer products such as mobile phones and cameras. As such, certain HPE Solid State Drives (SSDs) are supply constrained, and customer orders using the constrained SSDs may experience extended lead times. HPE has recommended alternative SSDs to improve delivery times for our customers."

Back in November, we wrote that vendors were quoting customers "elongated lead times – in some extreme cases by more than four months". In a note to its customers – seen by us last year – HPE had warned to expect shortages to "continue through Q1 2017 or longer."

It would appear that it's going to be "longer", then.

We heard Oracle might be similarly constrained and checked late last week. An Oracle spokesperson declined to comment. ®